“The more individual African people get the opportunity to work with the best filmmakers worldwide, the more people will pay attention to African talent,” says Mozambican student and entrepreneur Gerson José Amaral. And believes he is one of those individuals getting the opportunities that could advance his film career and contribute to Africa’s growing film industry by joining the Multichoice Talent Factory. With dreams of becoming a film and music producer, at the academy Gerson is hoping to gain “knowledge, networking and experience”. Through the creative industry, Gerson believes that “different parts of Africa are uniting to create beautiful things”, and is dedicated to seeing the creative film and TV industry flourish despite the odds.
“The biggest challenge is being able to show the rest of the world the power of our cultures through film, for example, the American movie Black Panther was powerful but was set in a fictional country, so imagine if it was about a real African country? That’s what we need, movies as powerful as that one but representing real African culture. I hope that this can happen with the next Shaka Zulu movie.”